With a 15-point lead going into the fourth quarter against Tulsa Saturday evening, Temple was in a similar position to its Wednesday night win at FAU. Head coach Diane Richardson’s team led by 13 in that game but needed overtime to come out on top.

In looking to close out Tulsa and get a stress-free win, deja vu struck for the Owls, as the Golden Hurricane stormed back, cutting the game to just two with two minutes remaining.

Temple found a burst of scoring with Kaylah Turner hitting a pullup jumper as the shot clock expired. On the defensive end, Tristen Taylor hit the deck, got a steal and found Jaleesa Molina, who finished a layup to give the Owls a six-point lead with 32 seconds remaining.

From there, Tulsa hit a three and forced a five-second violation that made Richardson irate as she called a timeout she was never awarded. Moments later, guard Delanie Crawford tied the game with a three-point shot fading out of bounds while being guarded heavily by Tarriyonna Gary with five seconds remaining.

After blowing multiple late leads and with leading scorer Tiarra East sidelined in the fourth quarter, Temple again turned to Turner, the overtime hero at FAU, with the game on the line on the next possession. The sophomore received the ball, stopped on a dime and pulled into a midrange jumper that skipped off the left side of the rim.

Just as it seemed the game would be headed to overtime, forward Amaya Oliver jumped into the air, grabbed the rebound and tipped it in to save the Owls and secure a 73-71 win at the buzzer at the Liacouras Center.

Oliver was sidelined at FAU while dealing with the flu but came up clutch in the final moments. She scored just four points Saturday, but half of them won the game.

“Wow, that was a tough game, huh?,” Richardson said with relief following the win. “I think we wanted to wake everybody up or something. But we showed our resilience and didn’t put our heads down and fought back.”

Temple (10-6, 4-1 American Athletic Conference) was led by Gary’s 21 points, with the fifth-year senior going 5-for-8 from deep. It was another solid game for Molina, who finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds for her third double-double this season, while Turner scored 15 points.

Temple jumped out to an early lead with East scoring seven points as the Owls led 11-6. Five more points from Gary put the Owls in good position, but it didn’t take long for Tulsa to respond. The second-best scorer in the AAC, Crawford caught fire, scoring 12 points while going a perfect 4-for-4 from the field to give Tulsa (8-9, 2-3 AAC) a 19-17 lead to end the quarter.

The Owls’ offense started to pick up in the second quarter, led by Turner, who scored 11 points, and Taylor, who helped with six of her own as the Owls scored 28 points in the second. On the defensive end, Temple limited Tulsa to just 12 shots and scored 13 points off of turnovers as the Owls led 45-35 at halftime.

“They’re going to go on runs. Everyone goes on runs,” Gary said. “It’s just how you respond to that run, and I just make sure to continue to tell [the team] anything that’s going to help us win.”

Temple continued to control the pace of the matchup in the third quarter, finding good shots on the offensive end, this time with Gary scoring 11 points in the third. Crawford was held to just two points and 1 of 7 shooting in the second and third periods as Temple led by 61-46.

Trailing big, Tulsa turned to the three-point game in the fourth quarter and it worked well, as the Golden Hurricane went 7-for-11 from beyond the arc to get back in the game. Tulsa forced nine turnovers in the fourth as Crawford found her rhythm again, hitting three from beyond the arc while Paige Bradley hit two herself.

Molina scoring six points in the fourth quarter on 3-for-3 shooting to keep the game close, with Oliver’s last-second putback giving Temple back-to-back wins.

“We are getting the confidence in all of our players [to operate the equal opportunity offense],” Richardson said. “As you can see with so many people scoring, it's hard to defend. And I know that they saw Kaylah Turner and said, ‘Well, where did she come from?’ and that’s what we want. We want everybody to be a scorer so it’s hard to triple-team or double-team.”

Temple takes a week break before returning to the Liacouras Center to play Charlotte on Jan. 18 at 2 p.m.

Watch Saturday's postgame press conference interviews here.